Ravel was such a fine pianist that it is surprising he did not write a concerto earlier, and fortuitous that just before his final, debilitating illness set in in 1932 he just managed to squeeze in two. This G major concerto was the first to be conceived – he had had hopes of polishing up his rusty piano technique in order to play it himself – but before he could set to work on it seriously there came the commission from the Austrian pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who had lost an arm in the war and was anxious to have a concerto for the left hand only. The two works occupied Ravel for the whole of 1930 and most of 1931, the Concerto for Left Hand being finished first and performed in November 1931, the G major one played (in the end) by its dedicatee Marguerite Long, under the composer's direction, in January 1932, first in Paris, then on tour all over Europe. Ravel insisted it was written “very much in the same spirit as those of Mozart and Saint-Saëns. The music of a concerto, in my opinion, should be gay and brilliant, and not aim at profundity or dramatic effects.” He went on to admit that the work contained touches of jazz, “but not many”.

sources

A  Autograph score (1931), Stichvorlage for E; private collection, Monaco. For a few readings I am grateful to Douglas Woodfull-Harris (Bärenreiter-Verlag)

P  First edition parts, published by Durand in January 1932

V  First edition for 2 pianos, published by Durand in January 1932

E  First edition score, published by Durand in January 1932

F,P’   Revised score and parts, published in 1966

The only score and parts now generally available (also online at IMSLP) are F and P’, whose text dates from 1966. The obvious question, as to how far differences from the original text in E are authentic, is mostly unanswerable; their origin is obscure. Worryingly, almost all have no traceable evidence of authenticity, but seem to have been made by the publishers arbitrarily.